The French army being completely worn out, and having suffered terribly in killed and wounded, continued to retreat during the 31st, followed by the five victorious divisions of the British in three columns, by the roads of Roncesvalles, Maya, and Donna Maria. On the evening of the same day, although obliquely to the rear of the pursuing columns, we received orders, if possible, to overtake the enemy, and attack them wherever they might be found. Accordingly, in the middle of the night we got under arms and began our march. Towards the middle of the following day, (the 1st of August), having already marched twenty-four miles, we descended into a deep valley between Ituren and Elgoriaga, where the division drew up in column to reconnoitre the right flank of the enemy, who were still hovering in the neighbourhood of San Estevan. After an hour's halt, we continued our movement on the left of the Bidassoa, and for three hours ascended, or rather clambered, the rugged asperities of a prodigious mountain, the by-path of which was composed of overlapping slabs of rock, or stepping-stones. At four o'clock in the afternoon a flying dust was descried, glistening with the bright and vivid flashes of small-arms, to the right of the Bidassoa, and in the valley of Lerin. A cry was instantly set up "the enemy!" the worn soldiers raised their bent heads covered with dust and sweat: we had nearly reached the summit of this tremendous mountain, but nature was quite exhausted; many of the soldiers lagged behind, having accomplished more than thirty miles over the rocky roads intersected with loose stones; many fell heavily on the naked rocks, frothing at the mouth, black in the face, and struggling in their last agonies; whilst others, unable to drag one leg after the other, leaned on the muzzles of their firelocks, looking pictures of despair, and muttering, in disconsolate accents, that they had never "fallen out" before.
The sun was shining in full vigour, but fortunately numerous clear streams bubbled from the cavities and fissures of the rocks, (which were clothed in many places by beautiful evergreens,) and allayed the burning thirst of the fainting men. The hard work of an infantry soldier at times is beyond all calculation, and death, by the road-side, frequently puts an end to his sufferings,—but what description can equal such an exit?
At seven in the evening, the division having been in march nineteen hours, and accomplished nearly forty miles, it was found absolutely necessary to halt the second brigade near Aranaz, as a rallying point. Being now parallel with the enemy, and some hours a-head of the vanguard leading the left column of our army, our right brigade still hobbled onwards; at twilight we overlooked the enemy within stone's throw, and from the summit of a tremendous precipice: the river separated us; but the French were wedged in a narrow road, with inaccessible rocks enclosing them on one side, and the river on the other: such confusion took place amongst them as is impossible to describe; the wounded were thrown down during the rush, and trampled upon, and their cavalry drew their swords, and endeavoured to charge up the pass of Echalar, (the only opening on their right flank,) but the infantry beat them back, and several of them, horses and all, were precipitated into the river; others fired vertically at us, whilst the wounded called out for quarter, and pointed to their numerous soldiers, supported on the shoulders of their comrades in bearers, composed of branches of trees, to which were suspended great coats, clotted with gore, or blood-stained sheets, taken from various habitations, to carry off their wounded, on whom we did not fire.
Our attention was soon called from this melancholy spectacle to support the rifle corps,[63] while they repulsed the enemy, who had crossed over the bridge of Yanzi to attack us, to enable the tail of their column to get off. Night closed on us, and the firing ceased; but, owing to our seizing the bridge, we cut off the whole of their baggage, which fell into the hands of the column of our army following from St. Estevan.
In this way ended the most trying day's march I ever remember. On the following morning, soon after daylight, we filed across the bridge of Yanzi, held by our pickets, and detached a small force to guard the road towards Echalar, until the troops came up from the direction of San Estevan, which had hung on the enemy's rear for the then three previous days. Continuing our march, we once more debouched by the defile opposite Bera, where the French sentinels were still posted, as if rooted to the rocks on which they were stationed the day we had taken our departure.
As soon as the second brigade came up, we again ascended the heights of Santa Barbara, where we found a French corporal, with a broken leg, his head resting on a hairy knapsack, and supported in the arms of a comrade, who generously remained behind to protect the life of his friend from the cuchillo of the Spaniards. As soon as he had delivered him to the care of the English soldiers, he embraced the corporal, saying, "Au revoir, bon camarade Anglais," and, throwing his musket over his shoulder, with the butt-end en l'air, he descended the mountain to rejoin the French army on the opposite range of heights. Of course, no one offered to molest this simple soldat, who easily effected his escape. As our picquets could not enter the valley until our right was cleared, and the enemy pushed from the mountain of Echalar, as soon as another division attacked those heights, the 1st rifles moved on and clambered the mountain of St. Bernard, supported by five companies of our regiment. The soldiers had been for two days without any sustenance, and were so weak that they could hardly stand; however, an excellent commissary had managed to overtake us, and hastily served out half-a-pound of biscuit to each individual, which the soldiery devoured while in the act of priming and loading as they moved on to the attack.
The summit of the mountain was wrapped in a dense fog: an invisible firing commenced, and it was impossible to ascertain which party was getting the best of the fight; the combatants were literally contending in the clouds. When half-way up the side of the mountain, we found a soldier of the rifles lying on his face, and bleeding so copiously that his havresack was dyed in blood: we turned him over, and, being somewhat recovered before he was carried off, he told us, in broken monosyllables, that three Frenchmen had mistaken him for a Portuguese, laid hold of him, thrust a bayonet through his thigh, smashed the stock of his rifle, and then pushed him from off the ledge of the precipice under which we discovered him.
The second French light infantry were dislodged, before twilight, from the top of this mountain; but the sparkling flashes of small-arms continued after dark to wreath, with a crown of fire, the summits of the various rocks about Echalar.
Thus, after a series of difficult marches, amongst a chaotic jumble of sterile mountains, the enemy were totally discomfited, with an enormous loss, by a series of the most extraordinary and brilliant efforts that had been made during the Peninsular War. For three days the French indeed had the vantage ground, owing to their superiority of numbers at a given point; but on the fourth day, the same divisions which had so heroically fought while falling back, sustained, with their backs to a hostile fortress, (whence the enemy sortied during the battle,) a most desperate assault made by the Duke of Dalmatia, over whom the Marquis of Wellington gained a memorable victory, and ceased not in turn to pursue the French marshal, until he was glad to seek shelter from whence he came. The standards of Britain again waved aloft, and flapped in the gentle breeze over the fertile fields of France.
[59] Pampeluna is about thirty-five miles from the extremity of the principal pass at Roncesvalles, forty-five from that of Aretesque, in front of Maya, and fifty miles from the pass of Bera; all these points it was necessary to occupy on the right of the Bidassoa; which clearly demonstrates the advantage the enemy possessed by attacking principally at Roncesvalles.